ABILENE, Texas -- Proverbs 6 contains a list of things God hates. That's strong language from a strong God, so you might assume that God's people join him in these hatreds and spend a lot of their time speaking out against stuff that's on the hate list.

Somehow, though, that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, his people sometimes like to read between the lines and ferret out their own lists of what is reprehensible. It's a lot more fun that way, or maybe it just provides more of a safety cushion between the ferreter's own behavior and what he includes on his hate list. Or maybe we just hope God will applaud us for showing initiative. I don't know.

In fairness, I don't think the Proverbs list is meant to be all inclusive, because it starts out, "There are six things the Lord hates; seven that are detestable to him," as if the writer of Proverbs was absent minded and remembered a seventh item at the last minute. Instead, I think this is supposed to be a list of leading examples of the types of things God loathes.

Here's his list:

1. Haughty eyes

2. A lying tongue

3. Hands that shed innocent blood

4. A heart that devises wicked schemes

5. Feet that are quick to rush into evil.

6. A false witness who pours out lies.

7. A person who stirs up conflict in the community.

What seems to tie these seven detestable things together is that they are all intentionally hateful, they all hurt other people, and they all begin as internal attitudes before growing into external behaviors.

And, because attitude, intent and the deep, deep heart of a man are involved, I think anybody ferreting out his/her own list of stuff for the Lord to hate needs to be pretty careful he/she doesn't end up on the Lord's list.

Last week's answers

Congratulations to Faith Smith of Huntsville, Ala., and Donna Gist of Abilene, Texas, who sent in the first perfect sets of answers to last week's jobs quiz. Here are the answers:

1. Tabitha is the nonprofit seamstress.

2. Simon labored to carry the cross.

3. Lydia was into purple textiles.

4. Aquila was a tentmaker

5. Jehu, who "drove furiously," belonged in NASCAR.

6. Judas was an undercover operative.

7. Elijah got fed by trained birds.

8. Tubal-Cain was the original blacksmith.

9. Matthew could have worked for the IRS.

10. Daniel was safe among wild lions.

11. Jonah and Sons built a funky boat.

12. Jonah could teach the Cousteaus about whales.

13. Joseph unraveled dreams while an inmate.

14. Luke was a missionary doctor.

15. Salome's dance got John beheaded.

16. Nebuchadnezzar acted like a cow for years.

17. Pontius Pilate passed the buck.

18. Nehemiah built walls in a war zone.

19. Esther won a beauty pageant.

20. John wrote down his vision of the future.

Moses, too slow of speech, gets no job.

Former Times design editor Doug Mendenhall, who now teaches journalism at Abilene Christian University, has written Soul Food weekly since 2000. E-mail him at doug.mendenhall@acu.edu.